Friday, March 30, 2012

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The Santa Barbara County Courthouse will test its new clock tower bell system on Friday, March 30, chiming at odd time intervals throughout the day.

The test will be the first time the Seth Thomas Tower Clock triggers the courthouse’s new electronic carillon system. (A carillon, classically, is the collection of cast bronze bells encased in the belfry of a church or other building.)

S.B.’s clock tower is undergoing a massive internal renovation, funded entirely by donations, that will culminate in the opening of the Bisno Schall Clock Gallery. Housed in the tower, the living museum dedicated to time and Santa Barbara courthouse history will be completed next month and opened to the public by the summer.

In years past, chimes emanating from the tower would sometimes not match the time displayed on its clock. The new system — tinkered by volunteer Bryan Mumford of Mumford Micro Systems — will be much more accurate, thanks to custom-made magnetic micro-switches installed on the clock.

Mumford, with the help of UCSB acoustic engineers, borrowed the courthouse’s bell sounds from the carillon system in UCSB’s Storke Tower.

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The bishop decided that he would conduct the interviews personally and went up into the belfry to begin the screening process. After observing several applicants demonstrate their skills, he had just about decided to call it a day. But just then, an armless man approached him and announced that he was there to apply for the bell ringer`s job.

Incredulously, the bishop blurted out, "But. . .you have no arms!"

"No matter," said the man: "Observe!"

And he began striking the bells with his face, producing a beautiful melody on the carillon. The bishop listened in astonishment, convinced he had finally found a suitable replacement for Quasimodo.

But suddenly, rushing forward to strike a bell, the armless man tripped and plunged headlong out of the belfry window, falling to his death in the street below. The stunned bishop rushed to his side. When he reached the street, a crowd had gathered around the fallen figure, drawn by the beautiful music they had heard only moments before.

As they silently parted to let the bishop through, one of them asked, "Bishop, who was this man?" "I don`t know his name," the bishop sadly replied, "but his face rings a bell."

{WAIT! WAIT! Not through yet}

The following day, despite the sadness that weighed heavily on his heart due to the unfortunate death of the armless campanologist (now there`s a word-of-the-day...), the bishop continued his interviews for a new bell ringer of Notre Dame.

The first man to approach him said, "Your Excellency, I am the brother of the poor armless wretch who fell to his death from this very belfry yesterday. I pray that you honor his life by allowing me to replace him in this duty."

The bishop agreed to give the man an audition, and, as the armless man`s brother stooped to pick up a mallet to strike the first bell, he groaned, clutched at his chest, and died on the spot.

Two monks, hearing the bishop`s cries of grief at this second tragedy, rushed up the stairs to his side.

"What has happened? Who is this man?" the first monk asked breathlessly.